The Buck Stops with Her

Running a news organization can be overwhelming. Day-to-day operations and the myriad decisions a manager has to make all add up to one great responsibility. His performance may reap either great or grave consequences.

This is why ABS-CBN, entrusts this responsibility to Luchi Cruz-Valdes, vice president for current affairs and training. Despite her relatively new position, Luchi is no stranger in the realm of news information delivery; she is, in fact, a pioneer.

She was one of the brains behind The Probe Team, a news program known not only locally but internationally for its outstanding performance in delivering credible, honest and unbiased news. Through Luchi’s efforts – with partners Che-Che Lazaro and Maria Ressa (currently CNN bureau chief and correspondent) – The Probe Team gained respect and recognition as a forerunner in TV investigative journalism in the post-EDSA I regime. It has reaped numerous accolades, both national and international, and was the only program consistently voted to the Ten Best Shows in Philippine TV by the Gawad CCP Awards.

Luchi has also been a Catholic Mass Media Titus Brandsma Awardee for Excellence in Journalism and KBP Broadcaster of the Year in 2001. She has garnered three silver medals for Best Documentary in the New York Film and Television Festival, and three bronze medals for her work in The Probe Team. She was head of news production for GMA 7 before assuming responsibility in ABS-CBN, where she has been working for two years and running.

Luchi seeks to apply in ABS-CBN what she has learned from her extensive background in journalism. She believes trends and program concepts come and go, but the three basic tenets of journalism remain: truth, accuracy and fairness.

"Truth and accuracy go together," Luchi relates. "You must be truthful not just in essence, but even in the details. A journalist can get the core of an interview right, but if she is negligent about the little details, it somehow detracts from the truth. And I believe in the biblical truth that says, ‘If you can be trusted in small matters, you can be trusted in great ones.’ Truth is the only sound basis for judgment. And while I shouldn’t be making judgments as a journalist, I should make sure to be fair so that my viewer can judge rightly."

Fairness requires a keen sense of balance, says Luchi. "It’s really not enough that you gave the other side his 15 seconds of airtime. Or worse, that you tried to get his side but he was out of town. Fairness is inherent in the way the story is written, not in the amount of airtime given to either side."

In the end, Luchi believes being a responsible journalist is really about tackling issues in order to give valuable information, raise awareness and ultimately help people make enlightened decisions. Journalists, she says, are bestowed with such a great privilege: the power to influence public opinion. "Noblesse oblige," Luchi is wont to keep saying. "Nobility obligates. As a journalist, I have been given great power. It behooves me to use it to well."

Luchi identifies what to her are the two greatest banes of journalism, especially, broadcast journalism. The first, she says, is sensationalism. "The power of the printed word is often no match to the power of video," she submits. "I can show you the video of an actual suicide and the impact of that would be a gazillion times more powerful than words. But that’s also where most TV journalists lose their sense of responsibility. When you have fantastic video, it’s hard not share it with your viewers." And with the ratings pressure on, she adds, the temptation is even stronger.

The second bane, she says, is self-centeredness. "Television is a glamour medium. It’s easier to gain fame here because people see your face. But the pitfall is it’s so easy to forget it’s not about you but about the story. It’s actually a more difficult balancing act. The line between sharing information you know, and bringing too much of yourself into the story is very thin. I confess to having crossed that line more often than I should have."

As Luchi assumes her managerial post in ABS-CBN, viewers will be seeing less of her on TV. While she is now hosting Special Assignment, she will have to put on her manager’s cap full time very soon. "This is a new challenge I face," she declares. "In Probe, I oversaw scripts and stories. In the other network, I managed news programs and program line-ups. Now I have to manage organizations made up of people working on programs with specific stories. It’s made my plate pretty full. Well, at least I don’t have to wrangle with my own self-centeredness!," she laughingly exclaims.

But Luchi is quick to add that there will always be space on her plate for just being a journalist. "Print this, quick!" she tells this writer. "So LFA and EL3 will give me a second shot at it," referring jovially to ABS-CBN president and COO Luis Alejandro and chairman and CEO Gabby Lopez, respectively.

With all the hard-snosed, gut-wrenching, life-changing decisions a person in her position will need to make, such levity will serve Luchi in good stead.